PC doing... nothing.

[Ads_172]

Hope someone can help!

Right, I came home last night to my computer off and refusing to switch on. My girlfriend said she left it on when she left for work earlier in the day, so it lost power at some point after that.

On inspection, the fan that cools the motherboard/CPU has become detached and I'm wondering if this has fried the MB/CPU. Obviously the BIOS should shut it down if it gets to warm, but now it's not starting up at all.

Anyone have any ideas? I don't want to go buying new Motherboards, etc if it's not going to solve the problem, as I also wouldn't know what to buy!

:dapprove:

 

[KDF]

Amd or intel ?


If its amd you are screwed.. no bios in the world is gonna save one of them.. 5 seconds without a heatsink and your processor is dead.. I think the recent AMD chips have better protection now.

 

[bsimmer3000]

yeah intel might be ok but older type AMD would fry in seconds

 

[Ads_172]

It's a, uh, Pentium... honest! (Dammit, stupid bloody AMD!)

Oh well, whilst I'm on the subject, what's anyone's opinion of this?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Athlon-64Bit-3400-2GB-RAM-16XDVDRW-256MB-GFXs-XBLADE_W0QQitemZ8756195010QQcategoryZ179QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I could replace the relevant bits but for the sake of just starting afresh, this doesn't seem too bad a deal... albeit in a horrible, horrible case!

 

[Ads_172]

Nobody have an opinion on that setup?

 

[Griff]

The word "budget" springs to mind. Processor is "ok" but the rest is cheap/crap. (sorry couldn't think of any other way of putting it)

 

[Ads_172]

No probs mate, am just trying to figure a way of getting myself sorted out again. My current PC was only a cheap Acer job about 5 years ago now, with various parts upgraded, so I'm not too bothered. Just want to find something pretty cheap (sub £300) that's going to do all the basics I need doing...

 

[Ads_172]

So it's an AMD...

If I choose to repair, what parts am I going to need? Can someone link me to specific parts that I'd need to purchase? Looking at the old case, it's an AMD Athlon XP, about 4/5 years old, but that's all I know!

 

[James_Extreme]

tried a different power supply 90% of the time that solves it, if the fan came of it should have auto shut off.

 

[Sym0n]

Is it powering up at all?
Does the SPU fan spin up?
Are you getting a POST screen?
Have you tried flashing the BIOS?

It could be down to the Mobo but it could simply be a locked BIOS.

Sy

 

[Mole]

My PC has an AMD athlon xp1700 in it, and the fan failed on my last heatsink. It still worked at idle, and at small loads, before getting unstable.

It would've become unstable and restarted/hung before it really killed itself.

 

[Ads_172]

If it's left switched off for a little while and then switched on again, the fan spins for literally a second and then stops again, nothing happens on screen.

I don't know what happened when the heatsink/fan fell off as I went to work with the PC on and came home and it was off!

I know bits about PC's but not enough to start flashing BIOS, etc. I've got the motherboard out now so will drop it into a local PC place and ask them to see if anything's wrong with it. If it's all working fine then I'll have to come back to the drawing board... I miss my computer!

 

[Mole]

what about the fan in the PSU, does that spin at all?

Did the fan stop working on the CPU Heatsink or did the heatsink actually fall off (doubt thats possible as the clamp they use is bloody tough to get off anyway)

The fan spinning for about 1 second then stopping sounds like a capacitor discharging, hence why you have to leave it a little while after.
The fan takes a 12v supply straight from the PSU, so i'd point my finger at the PSU.

Hopefully it is just that, as they're cheap enough anyway

 

[Ads_172]

The whole bloody heatsink fell off, as one of the plastic clip things on the CPU snapped off...

Hmm, maybe I'll steal my parents PSU quickly and see if that sorts it... are PSU's pretty much universal, even if they look different on the outside?

 

[Mole]

ahhh its most prob the CPU that has burnt out then, check out this link, made by "Toms Hardware" quite a well known website, shows what happens when the heatsink is removed on both AMD and Intel CPU's

http://www.dumpalink.com/media/1124623986/How_To_Mess_Up_Your_Computer

 

[Ads_172]

Well it isn't the PSU, and the PC guy reckons that the chances are if the CPU has gone then so has the board, due to the age of it.

Cheers for the vid mole, looks like the whole she-bang needs replacing, although my CPU didn't have any evidence of melting like the ones in the video... just a bit of darkening around the edges...

 

[Sym0n]

Hmmm the darkening would lead me to believe that your burnt the CPU out. And it would probably work out cheaper for you to upgrade with a MOBO/CPU package then try to replace the chip...and you could also find out the MOBO is screwed after that meaning more expense.

But try flashing the BIOS first. Nice and simple just remove the BIOS battery (watch type) from the MOBO for 30 seconds or so, with the PC turned off and unplugged mind. Then replace the battery, or even put a new one in, and turn it on.

When you power up the PC does the floppy drive or CD/DVD drives show any activity btw?